In the scope of a couple of days, several people — including Mashable staffers — have seen their Facebook cover photos disappear without explanation. The issue appears to be a move by Facebook to aggressively crack down on images that are considered promotional.

I first encountered the issue yesterday when Facebook ostensibly removed a promotional still from the TV series Doctor Who that I used as a cover photo. When I attempted to upload another image, I saw this message:

Pick a unique photo from your life to feature at the top of your timeline. Note: This space is not meant for banner ads or other promotions. Please don’t use content that is commercial, promotional, copyright-infringing or already in use on other people’s covers.

Since we published the original article about the incident, several readers have come forward, reporting the same thing happened to them in the comments. In addition, three other Mashable staffers reported Facebook removing their cover photos in the last 24 hours.

When asked if there was some kind of crackdown going on, a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable via email that Facebook’s policies regarding photos and cover photos haven’t changed. Facebook’s terms of service specifies that a cover photo should be a “unique image that represents your Page.”

Twitter today has nearly four times as many monthly active users outside the U.S. as it does in its home market — 260 million versus 68 million — and this week it quietly launched a new app in an effort to boost those numbers further. The social network is testing a Android app for Twitter Lite, a native app version of a mobile web site Twitter launched earlier this year that uses less mobile data to work. The lighter data load means that the app is especially useful for emerging markets where data networks are often slower and more expensive for consumers to use.

Is your retail business on Facebook? Here are four reasons your company needs a presence on the social media platform.

Facebook has billions of users throughout the world, and many of them use the social media site to like and follow their favorite brands. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your company, or if you don’t regularly update your page, you are missing out on opportunities to engage your current customers and attract new ones.

Here are four reasons to establish your brand on Facebook and ways to make the most of it once you’re there.

Shares have become the social media marketing equivalent of gold, especially for small businesses. Each share is a chain reaction where brand messaging is relayed to an entirely new audience, which can greatly help generate leads and sales. As it stands, Facebook is the undisputed king of social shares, making up for over 90% of shared articles in the first half of last year. Shares are what can bring brand messaging to a worldwide level. Take Poo-Pourri for example: they started off.

You might think you’re impervious to Facebook’s ads, but you probably do get seduced every once in a while. But because ads aren’t always permanently available anywhere, it can be impossible to find a Facebook ad that led somewhere you want to revisit. Now Facebook has a solution called Recent Ad Activity for when (if) you click an ad and want to see it again.

The dramatic influence of the internet on how businesses operate and the emergence of a handful of gigantic, digitally enabled corporations have led to breathless pronouncements regarding the importance of a peculiar new class of monopolies built on digital platforms. These platforms, it is argued, fuel network effects that lead inexorably to winner-take-all marketplaces.1 This perspective…

A few weeks ago, Google announced that it had teamed up with a mental health advocacy group to take a stab at addressing the American epidemic of depression. People who type the words “clinical depression” into Google search via mobile in the US are now presented automatically with a link to a screening questionnaire to assess their depression. The assertion that Google has the answer to everything just got taken to a whole new level.

Instagram is announcing several new features for advertisers today.The biggest is probably the expansion of the Canvas ad format to Instagram Stories (which supposedly reach 250 million people daily). While businesses have been able to advertise in Instagram Stories since earlier this year, this introduces a new, full-screen, interactive ad format to that mix.

There have been many changes in the social media marketing trends. New technologies are invented and features launched on every social media network.

Marketers like you are routinely integrating social media marketing with their core marketing strategies. So you have to update yourself with latest marketing trends. Find out what’s going to work for you in the future.

To help you out with this regard, we are here with the most significant social media marketing trends in 2017.

Starting to do Facebook live is a great way to build your small business. In addition to building your brand, live video helps you connect with your audience. Plus, it's a great way to create content to share on your website and other social media platforms.

Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com's insight:

So interesting to see how businesses are using live video, like Facebook Live to engage with their customers.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.